The Mnenia.zahav.ru portal has published an analytical article by the Israeli expert on political technology, social psychology, interaction between the state and civil society, David Eidelman, entitled “Elites and Unnecessary People”. He claims that humanity will split into two biological species in a couple of generations. Access to new health technologies will be gained by those who can pay for them, and economic inequality will turn into biological ones. Some will look like semi-cyborgs that can live much longer, better quality, without the need for other biomass. If the masses lose their importance for the economy, defense, state, then there will be no point in investing in their health, education and well-being.
Why has the “people's” hostility towards their own elites been increasing in recent decades? There are many previous answers to this question. But they are all irrelevant.
One could explain everything by exploitation. But it's hard to blame a programmer for exploiting a factory worker, even if he earns many times more. The programmer does not own the factory and does not buy its products.
It is unlikely that a prestigious lawyer can be accused of exploiting a shoemaker. He does not consume his work. He doesn't need her. Just as this shoemaker himself is not needed, who is not able to pay for his expensive services.
While the elite partake of the delights of the global world, the rogue are just strangers at this celebration of life.
Poor people in rich countries have become one of the main victims of globalization. They have lost from the fact that production is transferred to countries with cheaper labor. They have lost because cheaper labor invades their countries in the form of migrants and takes away jobs. They lost because the technological revolution, which ensured growth in labor productivity, began to slow down sharply in the 60s. They have lost out on the fact that capital incomes have grown faster than labor productivity in recent decades.
One in five Americans without a college degree has never worked in the past year. Along with the unemployed, the number of working poor is growing, for whom employment does not guarantee a decent life. Those who until recently considered themselves a representative of the middle class found out that they belong to the "new beggars", who differ from the "beggars" of more prosperous times only in that they are working beggars. Work is no longer an escape from poverty.
Wages are not growing, but prices - on the contrary, the quality of life is deteriorating, there are no guarantees and stability. And people feel frustrated. It turns into irritation when they hear daily assurances that things are going well, the economy is growing. This is repeated by politicians, experts and the media. And people see that their lives are worse.
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The first and main group of the population that supported Trump was the "white cattle" - white, not very successful men. With average incomes and below. With secondary education and below. Middle-aged and above. Men of the "rusty belt" where abandoned factories stretch for kilometers. They were deceived by the global world headed by America, the "American Dream". They are despised by the elites and wiped out by migrants. The "arrived yesterday" Latin American agrees to do the same job for a much lower salary. The Indian programmer is more in demand in the labor market. The closed plant went to the Chinese.
And the country's elites, people who have received a prestigious education, who earn good money, treat these guys with undisguised contempt: as losers, obscurantists, ignoramuses, homophobes, xenophobes. Young people who are storming career ladders and who will become prosperous in the future also treat these people with contempt.
In the United States, Trump gave these people the hope that he would deport Hispanic immigrants from the country and prohibit Muslims from entering the country, and introduce protectionist measures against Chinese goods. Trump promised to return the old way of life and work, which is irreversible as the triumph of the coal industry and the dominant role of the cavalry in the army. And Hillary hadn't promised them anything.
In most Western countries, society is becoming more and more diverse. Hispanics now make up 17.6 percent of the US population. One third of Londoners were born outside the UK. In France, 10 percent of the population is Muslim, in Germany 20 percent of the population has immigrant roots. That is why it is so tempting to win votes by sowing the seeds of hostility. The answer is terrorist acts by Muslims.
Humanity is facing another technological leap of the “fourth industrial revolution”. The development of biotechnology, the emergence of artificial intelligence, the ability to remove a huge number of people from the assembly line does not bode well for the majority. Until 2100, humanity will be divided into superhuman and useless castes, who will be left behind.
Industrial economies relied on masses of ordinary workers, and so governments invested in health, education and the welfare of the masses: they needed millions of healthy workers and soldiers to serve in the army. But we are entering a post-industrial world in which the masses are out of work. You can do without them. Rejected by the modern economy, citizens are called the global useless class. These are unnecessary people.
The robotization of the economy is scientifically progressive, but socially scary. Much less cheap assembly line labor will be required. There will be very little work that machines cannot do. Millions and millions of vacancies, many good old professions will disappear. This technological progress threatens not only hard workers, but also engineers, most of whom are engaged in searching for analogs on the Internet, revising and linking existing solutions to the terrain. The best armies no longer rely on millions of ordinary recruits, but on a small number of highly skilled soldiers, autonomous drones, robots and cyberworms. Most people are militarily useless.
Nietzsche's premature and misunderstood prophecy of the "superman" becomes possible. New biotechnologies are being developed, thanks to which a person will be able to significantly improve his physical and mental abilities, using the achievements of science and technology. To master your own carrier - your body. Design it. Change, improve. Live long. Easily deal with diseases. But access to these new technologies will be given to those who can pay for them. We may, for the first time in history, come to the possibility of turning economic inequality into biological one.
The future has two possible scenarios. Either the elites will be forced to educate and integrate the broad masses into the new world, or they will abandon democracy and the idea of equality. And in a couple of generations (and possibly even earlier) humanity will split into two biological species. Some will look like half-cyborgs, they will be able to live much longer, better quality, without needing other biomass. If the masses lose their importance for the economy, defense, the state, then incentives to invest in their health, education and well-being will disappear.
And it cannot be said that the masses do not feel this.
